Etta Place

For me, I am okay with the whispering mini-conferences at tribal (and plenty of these weren't even that whispered) because otherwise as we've heard from former players, votes rarely-to-never get changed at tribal. The public talk may make it seem like they will be changed, or may be able to be edited to seem like they will be, but people are usually too nervous to try to change it up with just meaningful looks and gestures. I don't need to know exactly what is being promised, that'll come out later. And what I liked about last night was the constant shuffling. It seemed that the groups were changing ... and maybe they were for a while, but it turned out it was building a consensus to get rid of Julia. We'll see the reasoning next week, but Julia's name had been thrown out there earlier in the episode and undoubtedly her attitude at tribal didn't help at all. Though I confess that when she said "shut up, Wardog" I thought "well, who hasn't wanted to say that?!"

I had to laugh at the way Alex said something along the lines of "you continue to mention someone in your response". It sounded like discouragement but this guy doesn't seem like the take-a-hint type.

They tell you not to do that as soon as the game ends, because everyone is usually on a slightly different raised platform and it's easy to forget that, step forward to shake, and fall off. But with the confusion, people sometimes forget and shake right afterward anyway. Which creates additional confusion because then it's usually happening right as Alex is approaching.

I don’t pronounce “duel” with 2 syllables.

Alex continues his reign of terror against Italian. The Duel category had "Il Duelce" as a play on words for Mussolini and Alex pronounced it as "do-ell-say" when it should have come out like "dool-chay", sounding almost like Duce (and exactly like "dulce", Italian for "sweet"). Edited to say: I posted this first thing in the morning and that’s my excuse for mashing up Spanish and Italian for “sweet” (dulce and dolce) into this unholy alliance. It's not just Italians - there are lots of names out there that are long removed from their original pronunciations for reasons of ease, Ellis Island, etc. Brett Favre, anyone? But it reminds me of how we had just moved back to the US from Italy and my husband had a student in one of his classes with the last name something like Cecchino (it wasn't that, but it had a similar distribution of C's), and he pronounced it "Ke-chee-no." My husband refrained from teaching him to pronounce his own name correctly (Chec-kino). I hate the categories that need explaining but I feel like they are a nice occasional break from the fact-bot nature of Jeopardy. So are math categories (speaking of the ones like "number of months with 31 days times number of members of the Roman triumvirate"), although I would have hated to be faced with one of those.

One other thing I meant to say after the show last night but instead got absorbed in wondering who these people were (and this morning reading through the thread I just realized I have no idea who Eric is ...googling... Oh! Hebrew tattoo guy): I think voting out Joe right away might have been a poor decision because it gives him the maximum amount of time out there on EoE to find whatever advantages may be offered.

Did we (me) miss a reward challenge last episode where Joe got a shower, shave and mustache wax? He looked seriously cleaned up this episode. Also, I’m with everyone else who doesn’t know half these players. I didn’t know Gavin’s name, and I was surprised to learn there was both a Julie and a Julia... then I came to the forum and thought “Ron? Where was there a Ron?”

I thought I heard a pretty clear "d" at the end of Seth Macfarlane when the middle guy said it, but I must be the only one. I hadn't the foggiest idea for FJ, I thought Arbor Day was in October for some reason (not that it occurred to me as a possibility, just saying that if the question had been "when is Arbor Day" I would have said October). I was yelling "knell! you just heard it, come on!" and like @Bastet I may also have said something like "the Tennessee Valley Authority? Really?"

Is it over yet? I mean, I used to really like this show, and I'll see it through to the end, and I'll enjoy what there is for me to enjoy in each episode, but... Nygma continues to be the highlight for me most of the time, although Penguin's reaction to everyone saying he'd pointed the gun at the baby might have stolen the show this week. I enjoy Bruce less and less as he approaches Bathood, so I guess it's a good thing there's not much more road to travel there.

Oh I knew there was something else - I’m adding Dutch to the languages Alex murders. That is .... not how you say Rijksmuseum.

Nice to see I wasn’t the only one who was thinking of the full name, the fucking New England Patriots! Marie Antoinette killed me, as did no one even attempting George Washington when spotted US president and 18th century. You don’t have a lot of choices.

I got FJ! I was so excited because British royalty is a hit or miss category with me. I originally hovered on Tudor because of Henry but realized that was ridiculous. After a few second Charles led me to the Stuart Restoration.

I think my favorite part of the episode was when David was talking to Wendy by the fire and asked her, “you do want to win, right?”

In my house, we thought that maybe the firefly type things could have been whatever caused the pregnancies. It would have taken a while for them to take effect, or maybe in that flashback Reginald was actually on another planet or timeline in the same time period of the pregnancies. I’m torn on the issue of separate threads. I would love it, personally, because it will take me weeks to watch a show and it sucks not to be able to discuss it or read anything here till I’m done with the season. But in the shows that I’ve seen where the season is released at once and there are episode threads, the only one that gets more than a comment or two is the last one. Maybe it would make sense to have them grouped instead- like episodes 1-3, 4-6, 7-10?

I am super happy that I got FJ. Playwrights is far from my favorite category, and when I saw the clue, I said “well, it would be helpful if I had any idea who died in 2018” (I don’t, obviously.) But I decided to try to think it through... he was 91, so his popular work was probably in the 60s or 70s... It ended up with me saying to my husband “I have no everloving idea - Neil Simon?” Imagine my surprise. I’d like to thank the monkeys flipping through the card catalog in my brain for making connections that baffle my conscious mind.

I did not teach my daughter to iron. She’s almost 25 and getting along fine without that skill. Good game tonight, and although I tend to like a fair number of the unpopular contestants (Austin, Buzzy, Arthur), I dread every appearance of Colby. Well, not his appearance, just when he opens his mouth.

I am just gutted for Alex.

Personally, I didn’t get the way teams advance when Alex ran through it... but I don’t care that much. I’m along for the ride, it doesn’t matter if I understand that or not. I love all of them, except maybe Colby and Roger Craig. I guess I’m just easy to please. I was frustrated by not seeing much gameplay in this episode but these are jeopardy celebrities so I think it’s okay to let them do more talking, especially in these first games with each group of teams.

Or like Doris Lessing on finding out she'd won the Nobel Prize: "Oh Christ."

This was me - my thought process was "Bahamas! Wait, no, the other one .... uh.... B....ermuda. Right? Bermuda. I think." I am just lucky I didn't think of Barbados, haha.

Where is Alexander Zverev? He seems to have sent an angry shadow of himself who can't play tennis to the Raonic match.

No, the word “conto” means bill or check, depending on what you call the thing you have to pay at the end of the meal. Both are acceptable terms and therefore acceptable translations.

I liked Anneke overall, but today’s interview comments were 100% cringeworthy. I guessed Pitcairn island only because of the “remote” part of the clue, entirely without making the Fletcher Christian connection. *gulp*

I have never been a fan, but that press conference was heartbreaking.

They have what, 12 episodes to wrap everything up? And we still have an episode where there are just a bunch of completely random villains, shootouts and running around with no real point...